In August, bids for a sealed iPhone from 2007 skyrocketed to $45,000, nearly 75 times its original price. Items related to Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs are also highly sought after.

Since, at the time, she was a Verizon user, and the first-generation iPhone required an AT&T account, she decided to keep the smartphone in a sealed box and put it on a self “wrapped in a pair ...